I know this must be widely-known – or maybe obvious from the image – but its been bugging me. Leonardo Da Vinci drew his famous “Vitruvian Man” – you know the one, two overlapping outlines of a man, inscriped in a circle and rectangle – to illustrate the importance of proportion…ality. I’ve learned that the “Vitruvian” comes from Roman architect Vitruvius. I’ve given the drawing a fair-good bit of examination. Check it out in detail, by the way – its worth a look.
Why is the one leg weirdly curved above the ankle? The rest of the drawing is angled well-enough that you know it wasn’t just a mistake. What’s the story?
I’m checking the geometry, here. The bent leg (the Man’s right leg)…is aimed to face forward, to be adjacent to the heel of his left…you know, I think it might just have been a misplot of some points. Come on, though, surely others have discussed this. Its not even on the damn wikipedia page!
I"m not seeing it. There are some minor anatomical inconsistencies in both the lower calf and knee areas, but the ankles look right for a man who is supposed to be standing in a circle.
I wonder if daVinci wanted the inside of the foot to be exactly touching the center, and the only way to do that and also keep everything else centered was to have the leg kink in a bit. After all, when people stand, the insides of their feet are not perfectly aligned with their center line unless they are standing at attention
I noticed this many years ago, and haven’t read a convincing explanation. His right leg that’s extended is correct, and the unextended one should look the same. It doesn’t. The knee and calf are turned, but the foot is not. There’s no way to make a leg look like that, with the foot unturned. It’s as if the model had a club foot.
My impression is that he was drawing the muscluature and was probably explored the calf muscle. I don’t believe he was actually drawing that for public use: it was a physical study for his own use.
Maybe DaVinci just screwed up on this one. Maybe we got one of the early drafts that wasn’t quite right while the one that was perfect was lost over the centuries.
No. If you look at the right leg, the one in the “straight down” position, you will see that it looks like the calf curves out to the viewer’s left, as if the toes were pointed to the viewer’s right, similar to the left leg. However, the right foot is clearly pointed directly towards the viewer, giving the effect of the right leg bowing out to the viewer’s left between the knee and ankle.
The right leg that is close to the vertical is not pointed straight at the viewer – there’s an angle to it, the foot is maybe 15 degrees off, and the knee more like 30, so he’s got his ankle turned out.
The other version of the right leg has the foot pointed straight at the viewer, and its big toe is pointed straight at the viewer, if not a little bit to the viewer’s left. The big toe on the vertical leg is pointed to the viewer’s right.
It kinda makes sense, if Da Vinci was using it as a study. Drawing symmetrical body parts is not so useful and frankly a bit boring I suspect. Now the picture is a good study for a forward facing, and a bent foot. Sort of a two for one deal.
If you were the Man, its the right leg. See how its clearly curving back towards the middle of the body?
Also, more broadly: this isn’t the angle of the leg – its obvious that he’s got one leg “in profile”, and one facing the viewer…but the Man’s right leg looks, haha, per above…RICKETY.
